Cost of refurbishing house

[Downtonbabby]

We have seen a house we love and ticks almost all our boxes. However it needs a complete refurbishment as it is a probate property that obviously hasn’t been done up in years so is very dated.

It will mainly be cosmetic work, but would need decorating and new flooring through out, a new kitchen and utility room, new bathroom, en-suite and cloakroom.

It is a 4 bedroom house built in the 80s/90s around 1400 square feet in total, based in the East Midlands.

We have estimated around £45k in total made of;
All 3 bathrooms £15k
Kitchen £20k (to include all appliances as ours is fully integrated so won’t be able to take with us)
Flooring £8k
Paint and decoration £2k

We will take on all the decorating ourselves but would need to pay for fitting of bathrooms and kitchens. Does this sound so able? Or could it be less? Our budget is tight so want to make sure it’s within our reach before offering.

We just moved into a 30s house that we chose for the space and light and needed to cosmetically update throughout.

We have approx £10k per year to spend on updating and this year we spent: £2k on carpets in 2 rooms, £1.5k on 2 rooms wallpaper, £1k on paint and general decorating equipment, £2k on bespoke shelving and storage in one room with an awkward space. The remainder went on things like furniture, light fittings, blinds and general ‘new house’ expenses like repairs for things we didn’t realise needed fixing or appliances that we weren’t able to bring from old house, hiring equipment to do work ourselves/skip. This has got us to a finished lounge and 2 x bedrooms.

Next year we have been quoted £10.5k for a brand new bathroom and will decorate the 3rd bedroom/stairs and landing ourselves.

The thing I will say is that we bought the house for great space and light and as we have decorated to our own taste, we have enjoyed it more and more and become even more confident in our choice of home!

I think 45k does seem a bit on the ambitious side.

We bought a 4 bed, 40 year old renovation 3 years ago.

We spent 15k just bringing the electric and heating systems up to spec. You say the heating is working, but you'll not know how well until you check. Like a lot of issues that will crop up. You just won't know right now.

Our guess budget was a lot higher than yours in the South West. We've already spent that and have the kitchen and most of the cosmetics throughout the house left to do!

We aren't just novices overpaying. We've done this a few times before. Construction costs are HUGE and have climbed massively in the past 2 years. We completely renovated our first house back to bricks and a full roof replacement, windows, bathrooms, kitchen, full re plaster, electrics etc for less than 25k 10 years ago.

It would be double that nowadays, plus some.

You don't need to do it all at once. One bathroom will do you for a while. DD has recently had to do a lot of work on her property and by being very strict on budget; Ikea kitchen, bathroom seconds, only plastering some rooms and tarting up the rest with a coat of paint has a very smart property now albeit no side return extension, downstairs loo, outside works , flooring throughout etc which would have been on their wish list.Electrics had to be done but no other massive issues and they were lucky to be in touch with a reliable builder who had done many similar projects.When we moved here we just spent our savings on what needed doing and gradually saved for other jobs.

Just make sure you do things in the right order. Don't jump in and fit a new kitchen for example, without first doing insulation, rewiring and replumbing or you could end up destroying your cosmetic work when you realise the essential work that needs to be done. Sometimes people might have put in a new boiler but haven't replace the piping and radiators, as one example.

@Downtonbabby Just make sure it is warm! Our Edwardian house is huge (1908), 4 metre high ceilings, 10 bedrooms. But SO cold, we spent 100K in 3 years and only now are we combatting the cold issue! We can't put insulation in the walls because they are crumbly. Some rooms (because they are huge), we have lost space by building a wall on the wall and stuffing it with insulation, works well!!

Do you have bay windows? Ours are freezing!!!!!! Old stained glass windows? Just get rid! It's like having an air con unit on all the time.

Just start from the outside in and make it warm! Especially before floors are down.

Decorating sounds right to me I do it all
Myself and love it. I think you've underestimated for bathrooms unless you're going for the bare minimum and a really basic finish

In similar situation 5 years ago we got same work done for 30k

@moxay prices are very different now unfortunately, we did a renovation project the summer before last, and another this summer. For example in a year, the basic metro tiles had increased from £12 per sq mtr to £16, the trade paint that was £32 10ltr, is now £50, the kitchen was the biggest surprise, the last property has a tiny kitchen just 4 units, the summer before kitchen 8 units, same supplier Homebase, same range, worktop etc. it was the slightly more expensive for the smaller kitchen. Even basics plaster board have increased massively in price. You did yours at the right time!